The Dragoness
by CNorth
Summary: WU girl series spinoff. The Wheel of Time allows for changes in the Ages, but they are still the same overall. What if one of the changes brought about, in our own world, a female Dragon Reborn? And what if she was a college student?
1. Chapter 1

The Dragoness

CNorth

WU-girl spinoff (Same characters, but they haven't been to Hogwarts, and never will in this story line)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Wheel of Time references made in this story. Robert Jordan does.

Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan fandom

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one age, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, three young girls walked down a crowded street. This was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was _a_ beginning.

Chelli Roberts and Jenny Jordan had lived in the same town their entire lives, until college. Now that they were separated for nine months out of the year, it was unsurprising to anyone who knew them that the two were together as often as possible. Hollie Reece, the third girl in the group, was a friend of Chelli's from Winthrop University, where Hollie was a music major, and Chelli was a psychology major. She had come to visit Chelli for the weekend, even though they would be back at school just two weeks later. Hollie and Jenny had a lot in common, and from the minute they met, had gotten along great. With Jenny leaving for her college the next week, they had decided a shopping trip was in order, and headed downtown to the thriving city life of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Actually, the city didn't really have much in the way of shopping. But since they were really just in need of an excuse to leave the house, it would suffice. Like in most major cities, there were quite a few very weird people floating around. Junkies and homeless popped up on occasion, and from a far away street corner, they could hear a "prophet" shouting that Armageddon was coming. Chelli, who loved reading occult fiction, scoffed. She had no faith in prophecies, no matter how many of Nostradamus' had come true. Her friend Lori, on the other hand, would have been up at the man's side, naming every sign and prophecy requirement that had been fulfilled. Chelli ran her fingers through her shoulder length brown hair and rolled her eyes at the blondes on either side of her.

Just as they were about to enter Bath and Body Works, a loud gunshot rang out behind them. Jenny tensed as pain erupted in her leg, a soft cry the only noise that escaped her as she collapsed to the ground. Shoving Hollie to the side, into the store's entryway, Chelli dropped automatically into a crouch next to Jenny. The bullet had hit low in her calf, ripping through muscle without hitting bone.

"Can you crawl over to where Hollie is, blondie?" she asked, gazing at the girl fondly when she nodded and began her movement towards safety.

Several more shots rang out, one shattering the storefront that sheltered Hollie, another striking inches from where Chelli was crouched. The girl let muscle memory from her fencing and martial arts classes take over, and she rolled rapidly out of the way of another bullet. She knew her best bet was to wait until the shooter was out of ammo, and then dive for safety before he could load another clip. But that would draw attention back to Jenny and Hollie, and also make it way too easy for them to be trapped. Quickly counting, she realized only half the clip had been fired so far. Whatever was going on with this person, the three girls had definitely been targeted.

She scrambled hurriedly as the sound of another shot rang out. She had let her attention wander, and had almost been hit because of it. Without even thinking, she bolted off down the street, zigzagging to make herself a harder target to hit. Two more bullets missed her, and she gave a sigh of relief, slowing momentarily to catch her breath. Six bullets-a full clip fired, and she wasn't hurt. She glanced briefly towards Jenny and Hollie, and saw that Hollie was on her cell phone. Further away, she could hear sirens wailing as they approached. Her eyes searched to find where the bullets had originated from, and she quickly noticed a dark, cloaked figure up on top of one of the buildings. Grinning, she ducked into a back alley. The hunter was about to become the hunted.


	2. Chapter 2

The Dragoness

Chapter 2

Cnorth

Disclaimer: The Wheel of Time and all related concepts belong to Robert Jordan.

Lori Taylor had been interested in fate and destiny her entire life. Chelli thought it was all just so much rubbish no matter what she said though, so of course Lori had been ignored when she tried to tell Chelli that she was destined to be possibly the most powerful woman in the entire world.

Chelli had what could only be called a normal upbringing…her mother worked for a major department store chain in a white-collar position, her father ran a business over the internet. For a kid in the '90's, Chelli was the epitome of normal. She had a younger brother, with whom she was close, but no more so than usual with a loving sibling relationship. She shared an uncanny bond with her mother, however, to the point where the two were never separated without some form of contact every day. If anything, the only unusual circumstance in Chelli's past was her birth itself…

It was a warm day for November, in the year 1986 when Chelli's parents had gone camping, not expecting to have a child on the top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, since the woman was only 6 months pregnant. Unable to reach a hospital in time, they had settled for having an older man who was half American Indian deliver the child on the slopes of the mountain. This had been Lori's grandfather, who had done this not knowing that his own granddaughter was going to be inexplicably interwoven with the fate of these unusual people.

Lori's family on both sides had a history of gifts which tended to be associated with shaman magic, including precognition, and elemental control. Usually, the thinner the blood was in a person, the less gifts they had, but in this particular family, they somehow always bred true. Lori herself was extremely powerful, but her mother was a skeptic, and though she might very well have had the power, she refused to believe in it, and certainly wouldn't use it. Therefore, the girl had found a great deal of problems staring her in the face about the practice of her own magic…if her mother so much as smelled a candle, she was doomed. So, with traditional magic out of her reach, she was limited to just those few family gifts…which weren't very conclusive when you had a friend looking for proof that you really were magical. Especially since Chelli was a firm believer in coincidence.

Lori was startled out of her revery by her cell phone ringing. She swore, digging through her black hole of a purse for the small gadget, and hurriedly answering the call when she saw it was Hollie.

"Hey, Holls. What's up?"

"Jenny's been shot, Chelli's tracking down the marksman, and I'm freaking the hell out!" the blonde said in a panicked tone. While she was usually fairly okay, temper wise, a scared Hollie was a very bad thing. Lori arched an eyebrow, her head busy trying to take in the first two parts of the statement, and not worrying to much about the third part. Not that she wasn't worried about Hollie, of course… the girl was one of her best friends. But freaking out was a step down the worry scale from being in mortal danger or going Lara Croft on some guy's ass. And she wouldn't put it past Chelli to do just that…the girl had quite a temper, and while she usually kept it under control quite well, when her friends were hurt it tended to come out with a vengeance.

"Where are you? I'm on my way!" she said, bolting towards her car, keys jangling loudly as she struggled to get the door open. The fact that the others were more than likely a state away made no difference to her…an emergency was an emergency, and she sped even in the best of situations.

"We were shopping in Knoxville…" Hollie murmured, her breathing easily heard as she struggled to keep from having a panic attack. Lori cursed loudly; of course they were in one of the few places she didn't know like the back of her hand in Tennessee (what could she say, she loved shopping!!). Scribbling directions with her left hand, steering with her right, and holding the phone between her head and her shoulder she was quickly on the highway headed in their direction.

Chelli scrambled up the fire escape, trying to be as quiet and fast as possible as she crept up to the roof that the shooter had first fired from. If she could track him down before the cops got to him, maybe she could keep him distracted long enough to get the gun away from him so no one else could get hurt. The fact that he had hurt Jenny and obviously scared Holls half to death was bad enough…and Chelli was damn pissed. No one hurt her friends, it just didn't happen. At least no one who had any sense of self preservation.

With a grin, she launched herself over the edge of the roof, ducking in case the shooter noticed her movement. Hearing no gunfire, she looked up and was shocked to see the roof was empty. However, a tiny fragment of cloth was stuck on the far side of the building, next to the fire escape over there. She grabbed it, careful not to touch anything and leave fingerprints. She didn't want the cops to think SHE was responsible for this, after all. Glancing over the edge, she caught a brief glimpse of a man in black pants and a white shirt, a blue jacket and black shoes dodging into the crowded street below. This street was on the opposite side from the road she had been on earlier, so the gunfire hadn't scared any shoppers away from here. She tried to fix the man's image in her mind, then slowly continued down the other side of the fire escape to go back to her friends, her muscles complaining as the adrenaline rush quickly died down. She might be in shape, but even she wasn't really up for all the acrobatics she had done in the last ten minutes or so.

"You what?" Chelli yelled, unable to keep her calm when Hollie guiltily admitted that in addition to calling the cops, she had called Lori. The girl was ultimately an alarmist, and sure enough, Hollie then proceeded to admit that she was on her way here, now. Lori barely knew Jenny, but of course, even a little was enough when it came to someone being shot. A soft groan came from Jenny.

"Can't you guys keep it down a little? I'm kinda tired from being SHOT!" the blonde muttered, clearly irritated at the other two.

Glaring at Hollie's cell phone, since she was unable to stay mad at Hollie herself for long, she echoed Jenny's groan, and crossed her arms in a huff, just waiting for the lecture she was going to get when Lori got there about going after someone who could probably have killed her.

What a lousy day this was turning out to be. Really, what could go worse?


End file.
